Andy Irvine is one of the best and most important Irish folk musicians of the modern era. A founder of the band Sweeney's Men in the 1960s, he went on to form Planxty along with fellow Irish folk icon Christy Moore. After Planxty's demise came Patrick Street, a less influential but no less virtuosic ensemble that continues to perform and record today, more than 20 years after its founding by Irvine and brilliant fiddler Kevin Burke, who also remains in its ranks. Read more on Last.fm

Paul Joseph Brady (born May 19, 1947 in Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland) is an Irish singer/songwriter whose work straddles folk and pop. He was into a wide variety of music from an early age. During his career he has passed through several major bands (including The Johnstons, Planxty, Andy Irvine & Paul Brady) and on to a successful solo phase.
Brady began performing as a hotel piano player in Donegal at the age of sixteen and graduated to being guitarist, during the 1960s, in two rhythm and blues bands: Rockhouse and the Cult. Read more on Last.fm

Nine comments

Classic album recorded in 1976, with Kevin Burke and Donal Lunny. Paul Brady’s (missing) Liberty tapes has a lot of this album recorded live. Thankfully he found it!

Andy irvine/paul brady

i recently listened to this album for the first time in years. it’s aged very well — much better than some of the mulligan albums from the same time period. i’d completely forgotten the wonderful version of ‘arthur mcbride.’ definitely a classic.

Plains of Kildare

The opening track is IMO the definitive Irish Balkan arrangement.
I have transcribed the jig section and posted it as a tune. My attempt at the full arrangement transcription is postedin the comments section of the tune posting. Its quite interesting to see the tune with time signatures in 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15 time signatures… by my estimate anyway. I hadn’t realised from 20 years of listening. Only the 6/8, 3/4 and 7/8 were obvious until the transcription attempt.